Back on 22 March 2012, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 video card made headlines and became the best-performing single-GPU graphics card on the market. Only six weeks later NVIDIA engineers have successfully combined two 28nm GK104 GPUs together to create their new GeForce GTX 690. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests game performance with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690, a double-slot graphics card equipped with a pair of Kepler GPUs. Featuring NVIDIA's cutting-edge GPU Boost technology, the GeForce GTX 690 video card can dynamically adjust power and clock speeds based on real-time application demands. Using EVGA Precision-X, the GeForce GTX 690 has both GPUs overclocked beyond 1200 GHz to produce ultimate graphical performance in PC video games.

Like many of you, we're ready to start the day with a launch review of NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 690. The GTX 690 aims to be the best-of-the-best. It offers best-in-class performance, noise and thermal levels, and is extremely efficient considering its raw gaming power.

"When it comes right down to it, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 is simply the fastest graphics card on the market.

The highest clock speeds I could reach on this card are 1202MHz on the two cores and 1620Mhz on the GDDR5 memory. To reach the highest clock speeds I adjusted the GPU core voltage to a maximum of 1175mv and raised the core clock speed by 100MHz and proceeded to test stability using Unigine Heaven Benchmark 3.0 at a resolution of 5760x1080 using the maximum settings. I continued in 10MHz increments until the benchmark failed. Failure came pretty quickly at just +123MHz for a +13% increase in clock speed or 1028MHz. GPU Boosted clocks ranged from 1189MHz to 1202MHz in this configuration. To get the most from the GDDR5 memory I followed the same scaling and ended up with a memory clock speed of 1620 MHz or 6480MHz effective or an 8% bump in speed. Although not massive increases on a percentage basis the increases deliver measurable increases in performance across the board from an already fast card.

When it comes to the performance results, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 easily becomes the fastest gaming graphics card that we have ever tested. It is also one of the better looking cards that we have ever used as well. You can tell that NVIDIA left no stone unturned and has tried to make this product the best video card the company has ever released...

After testing the GeForce GTX 680 last month, it was practically a foregone conclusion that a dual-GPU powered graphics card based on the same GK104 GPU was coming down the pipeline. The GK104 at the heart of the GeForce GTX 680 was able to best AMD's current flagship GPU more often than not in our testing, and it did so while consuming less power with a smaller chip die size. If NVIDIA could stick two of their previous-generation, much larger and more power hungry, GF110 chips onto a single card with the GeForce GTX 590, doing the same with the GK104 would come as no surprise. NVIDIA did have a few surprises in store with the GTX 690 though, even if we all sort of knew the card was coming...

Today we get to look at the GTX 690, NVIDIAs dual GPU Kepler part, and will be putting it up against some of the best custom GTX 680 and Radeon 7970 cards along with CF and SLI configurations in the latest games such as Battlefield 3, Mass Effect 3 and Skyrim. GPU computing and HD playback will of course make an appearance and to top it off a card like this needs to run on a beefy CPU, so it's time to take the i7-3960X to 5.0GHz...

Okay, so it's not a surprise to you at all, or if it is, you haven't been paying attention. Today is the first on-sale date and review release for the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 4GB dual-GPU Kepler graphics card that we first announced in late April. This is the dream card any PC gamer out there combining a pair of GTX 680 GK104 GPUs on a single PCB and running them in a single slot SLI configuration and is easily the fastest single card we have ever tested. It also the most expensive reference card we have ever seen with a hefty $999 price tag.

Today NVIDIA releases their new GeForce GTX 690 flagship. The $999 card is based on two GK104 graphics processors that have their full potential enabled. The new card has one of the most extravagant designs, making heavy use of metal which adds to the experience. Performance is outstanding, being neck to neck with a dual GTX 680 SLI setup.

Over the last few years there have been many contenders, unfortunately none has had the absolute prowess to take the crown. They all battled well in the trenches but after the battle was said and done at best it was a split decision. Other than price performance, the contenders lacked power efficiency, had issues with increased fan noise and ran much warmer than their baby brothers. A new contender has come forward with the promise of not only being the most powerful but the most efficient. This contender is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690.

We review the all new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690. NVIDIA took two of their best (Kepler GK104) GPUs, placed it onto one card, topped it off with a very nice and dandy cooler and calls this symbiosis of components a single solution graphics card.

Internally on that card a small PLX chip functions as PCI Express bridge in-between the two GPUs and sure, that means SLI is in full effect. And the performance .. well breathtaking of course. Have a peek right here in our 27 page review

We already know that Nvidia's GeForce GTX 690 sports two GK104s and is priced at $1000. But hardware like this is fun to read about. Oh, you actually want to buy one? Expect performance just shy of two GTX 680s in SLI, and good luck tracking one down!

Is the GeForce GTX 690 the best dual-GPU video card ever built We'll compare performance to GeForce GTX 680 SLI and Radeon HD 7970 CFX to see where the new beast from NVIDIA stands. We overclock the dual GPUs and push these as far as we can. Surely this is the best performance ever experienced from a single video card.

In an unusual move, NVIDIA took the opportunity earlier this week to announce a new 600 series video card before they would be shipping it. Based on a pair of Kepler GK104 GPUs, the GeForce GTX 690 would be NVIDIA&rsquo;s new flagship dual-GPU video card. And by all metrics it would be a doozy.

Packing a pair of high clocked, fully enabled GK104 GPUs, NVIDIA was targeting GTX 680 SLI performance in a single card, the kind dual-GPU card we haven&rsquo;t seen in quite some time. GTX 690 would be a no compromise card &ndash; quieter and less power hungry than GTX 680 SLI, as fast as GTX 680 in single-GPU performance, and as fast as GTX 680 SLI in multi-GPU performance. And at $999 it would be the most expensive GeForce card yet.

After the announcement and based on the specs it was clear that GTX 690 had the potential, but could NVIDIA really pull this off? They could, and they did. Now lets see how they did it.